The Skeleton in Edison's Closet
by ElegantButler
Summary: A twisted secret from Edison's past brings pain to one of his closest friends.
1. Chapter 1

Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into the Future

-A Skeleton in Edison's Closet-

Part 1

Addison Carter's name was very similar to that of his twin. The similarity ended there.

Not one of Edison's co-workers knew about the reporter's brother and with good reason.

Addison had been arrested in his early twenties for inappropriate behavior involving a couple of school-age children. Disgusted by this and not wanting to lose his chances at getting hired at Network 23 because he looked like a convicted pervert, Edison had gotten all records of his kinship with Addison purged from his personal file while still in journalism school.

Addison had lost track of his brother for the longest time. He's been in jail until their twenty-seventh birthday, getting out after just six years because of good behavior. Even he thought that was pretty dumb. It wasn't as though there were any kids in the cells. Even an addict, he thought, will go without their fix if it's not readily available.

It had taken him a little while to track down Edison. In the end, he'd discovered him by a fluke as he was going through the channels to find out what was on TV.

Now, a few days later, Addison was on the lounge level at Network 23 trying to pick a snack to eat before seeing his brother.

The door opened and he turned to see who was there. It was a boy of about sixteen.

"Edison?"

There was something in the boy's tone that suggested that he was in love with Edison, but that he had not yet admitted it.

Addison knew he should speak. That he should reveal the truth, that he wasn't Edison. But the sickness that had landed him in jail all those years ago got the better of him.

Without a word, he pinned Bryce to the wall alongside the vending machine. Addison could feel his prey's heart racing, his body trembling. These were not the reactions of fear, for this young man did not know of the danger he was in. They were the responses of someone in love who believes that their love is at last being returned.

Touching his throat to indicate he had laryngitis, Addison covered Bryce's mouth with his own, and prayed silently that no one would want a snack for the next several minutes while he deftly stole Bryce's virginity as expertly as a snake on the hunt.

After Addison was gone, Bryce fixed his clothes and headed back to his studio, all thoughts of a snack completely wiped from his mind. He could not believe it. He had often wondered what it might be like to be kissed by Edison. But he had never dreamed that the ace reporter would ever take time out of his usually busy schedule to ravish him so thoroughly. It had been Bryce's idea of what dying and going to Heaven must feel like. There had been pain, but Bryce's joy at realizing that Edison must love him to be touching him in so intimate a manner overrode that discomfort and it had passed quickly.

That evening at the semi-annual Network 23 awards ceremony, Edison took the stage to accept another Vidi, this one for the story he'd done on Security Systems.

"While I'm up here, I guess this is as good a time as any for the announcement I have been waiting to make," he said.

Bryce noticed that Edison wasn't wearing the outfit he'd had on earlier, but figured he'd changed for the ceremony. He wondered what Edison was going to say. Perhaps a confession of love for him. At least his laryngitis appeared to have healed up, though that was probably why he hadn't spoken to Bryce all day.

Edison cleared his throat. "I wish to announce that Vanna Smith has agreed to marry me."

"WHAT?!"

If a pin had dropped in Katmandu, everyone in the room would've heard it land.

Seemingly unaware of the stares he was getting, Bryce continued in a fury. "You jerk! How can you marry her after I just gave you my virginity less than four hours ago?!"

"You did WHAT?" several of the controllers including Theora and Angie Barri exclaimed along with his fellow reporter Janie Crane and Vanna Smith herself.

"Bryce, you little liar!" Edison shouted back, jumping down from the stage and grabbing Bryce by the collar. "How dare you embarrass me this way! I never laid a hand on hand on you!"

"You're the liar, Mr. Carter," Bryce said, coldly, as he pulled free and stormed out of the room.

Cheviot walked over to Edison. "If you asked him to do that in order to increase the awards show's ratings, it was in extremely poor taste." he said.

Theora waited for Cheviot to leave, then pulled Edison into a corner. "Bryce didn't lie, Edison. I had Max play back Bryce's accusation and run it through the voice print analyzer. The color was so blue you could paint pictures of the sky with it."

"Theora, I promise you, I never touched him. Other than holding him to keep him warm at Security Systems when we were locked in that thermal testing chamber, I never laid a finger on him. I sure as hell never had sex with him!"

"Then who the hell did? Because whoever he was he looked enough like you to fool a young man who must have been in love with you for some time for him to react the way he did tonight."

Theora returned to the table, leaving Edison standing there.


	2. Chapter 2

Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into the Future

-A Skeleton in Edison's Closet-

Part 2

"Damn it!" Bryce swore feeling the tears trickle down his face as he walked away from Network 23. "Damn Carter. How could he?"

He didn't care which way he went or where he ended up. He certainly wasn't going to go to his parents' house, wherever they were living. He wasn't about to tell them what had happened. This was, as far as he was concerned, the worst day of his life.

Not four miles away, in his own home, Edison Carter, the perceived reason for Bryce's worst day, sat on his bed and ignored the TV as it played an episode of Lumpy's Proletariat.

"Forget something?" Max asked as he appeared solely on Edison's screen.

"No," Edison said as he decided to go to bed.

"Are you sure?" Max inquired.

"Yes, I'm quite sure." Edison grumbled as he got into bed and hid his head under the pillow.

"So, no apologies are necessary then?"

"I've got nothing to apologize for." Edison said from under the pillow. "I don't know what Bryce's problem is, but I didn't do anything to him. So I've got nothing to say I'm sorry about."

"Really?" Max asked, darkly.

"Really. Now let me sleep." Edison grumbled.

Bryce's aimless running quickly took him into the Fringes. A genius at computers, Bryce had been sheltered from violence for most of his life. Except of course for what he saw on TV. He knew it existed, but had never really dealt with it head on. Except for nearly dying in a thermal testing chamber. And he was now in the most violent part of the city.

Addison Carter had lived on the westernmost border of the Fringes since his release from jail. Since no respectable people would hire him because of his past crimes, he made a meager living doing Edison Carter impersonations for people like Breughal and Mahler who held a grudge against Edison and were willing to shell out a few coins to see the great man ridiculed. He had so far not run into Blank Reg or Dominique at Big Time. There were people out there who would love to have his head on a pike, and he had no intention of advertising his location.

He was heading home after a rather good performance, in his mind anyhow, when he spotted the young man he'd seduced earlier that day. Deciding not to waste a good opportunity, he followed him for several minutes until he was close enough to grab his arm.

Bryce spun around in terror, fearing it might be someone like Breughal. His fear quickly turned to anger as he saw Addison, still believing him to be Edison.

"I'm not going back to Network 23," he said. "I'd rather take my chances out here than work with a jerk like you."

Addison pulled Bryce into a kiss, smirking as Bryce tried to wrestle out of his grip.

Bryce glared at Addison as he dragged him into a warehouse. The place had been fixed up into a meager home with a mattress on the floor for a bed and a few crates for furniture. A bin off to the side had the burned remnants of a trash inside and Bryce guessed it served as a makeshift stove for whomever was staying here. The only television set was a small one on one of the crates showing the easily ignored Lumpy's Proletariat.

Addison shoved Bryce onto the mattress. With a glare Bryce got to his feet and tried to slap him across the face. Addison grabbed his arm and held it firmly.

"You may have the respect of millions of people," Bryce said angrily, "but you lost mine tonight and you're not getting it back."

"I haven't had the respect of anyone for years," Addison said, watching as Bryce's eye widened in realization.

"You're..." Bryce said as he moved toward the door, not wanting to take his eyes off this man for an instant.

"Not Edison," Addison smiled. "Nope. And you're not leaving."

Bryce looked around for weapons and was relieved when he saw nothing.

"You've got nothing to keep me here, whoever you are."

"Addison Carter. Edison is my twin."

Bryce was furious. If this was Edison's twin, then Edison must've known it was he who had taken Bryce's virginity. Edison had known about the danger and had said nothing. When Bryce saw Edison again, that man was going have a lot to explain.

"As for keeping you here, your conscience will do that for me," Addison told him. "They let me out of jail when they should've kept me in. I took you because my sickness is still not cured, you see. I don't think it ever will be."

"Sickness?" Bryce asked, warily.

"Or perversion, if you will," Addison said, laughing coldly. "A young man like you is every perverts wet dream. Someone old enough to take legally and young enough to make me feel like I'm getting away with my favorite crime."

"Now I really want to leave," Bryce snarled.

"Go ahead," Addison offered. "Walk out that door. Of course once you're gone, I'll just go back to molesting and probably raping whatever young flesh I find out here in the Fringes. And it'll be your fault."

"No, it won't." Bryce shook his head.

"Yes it will," Addison told him. "Because you can stop their pain right now. All you have to do is give yourself to me. Stay here and let me have you whenever and however I want."

"You're crazy!" Bryce was at the door now, his hand on the knob.

Addison smiled. "It's your choice. Do I rape you and you alone? Or shall I take my sickness out on..."

Bryce couldn't bear to hear anymore. He thought of Mink and of the kids at Orville's school. Was this man sick enough to put his hands on them? Bile rose in this throat as he thought of the pain they would suffer if Addison went after them.

His hand fell away from the doorknob.

"You'll stay, then?" Addison smiled, evilly.

"As long as you keep your promise to not hurt anyone else," Bryce told him. "But I will always hate you."

"I will keep my promise as long as you hold up your end of the bargain," Addison said, eyeing the mattress. "I won't ask twice, so if you refuse anything, I will leave and come back with an alternate source of pleasure. And I will make you watch."

Bryce knew now that he would never leave. Even if Addison left to fetch his 'alternate source', he'd stay and wait, trying to work out a way to save whoever it was. Even though he knew he could never hope to overpower Addison.

Addison maneuvered Bryce over to the mattress, pulled him into another unwanted kiss, and undressed him as tears ran down Bryce's face.

On the little TV, Max Headroom wore an expression of rage.


	3. Chapter 3

Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into the Future

-A Skeleton in Edison's Closet-

Part 3

"Wake up," Max demanded, for the nth time that hour, this time turning on every light in Edison's apartment.

"Max, turn the damned lights back off," Edison shouted. "I'm sleeping. Whatever it is you want to chat about will have to wait until morning."

Max began to flicker the lights and play several jarring noises.

Edison leapt to his feet in anger. "Fine. I'm up. Now why don't you tell me why it is you won't let me sleep tonight?"

"Do you know where Bryce is right now?"

"Oh for Heaven's sake, Max!" Edison snapped. "You woke me up to talk about Bryce's little tantrum? Look, if he's not in his studio he's probably gone to the vending level."

"He's in the Fringes," Max corrected him.

"The Fringes?!" Edison dropped the coffee pot he had been cleaning. Not noticing as it shattered, he ran to the set Max was on. "Tell Reg to bring him home now."

"He's not with Blank Reg," Max said, darkly.

"Oh God," Edison groaned. "Tell me he's not with Breughal and Mahler."

"I almost wish he was," Max said. "He's with your brother. The one you so conveniently forgot to tell everyone about."

"I don't have a brother," Edison said, firmly, feeling a bit queasy as he prayed inwardly that Bryce would be able to use his intellect to talk his way out of a potentially dangerous situation.

"The brother you don't have just raped Bryce," Max said, his eyes flared with anger.

Edison barely made it into the bathroom before his stomach gave up its contents.

"Actually, he raped him twice if you count that little incident you denied ever happened at Network 23," Max went on as Edison re-entered the room wiping his mouth.

"Where exactly does my brother have Bryce," Edison asked. "Show me."

Max knew that Edison just wanted to see a graphic of the Fringes and the location of the warehouse. But he wasn't going to let Edison off that easily. Instead, he showed him the mattress inside the warehouse where Addison was still holding onto Bryce, still half on top of him. Then, just to make sure that Edison got the full effect, he gave the reporter a close up shot of Bryce's face, which was a mask of pain, streaked with tears.

"Tell him help is coming," Edison said, as he put on his clothes. "And tell him I'm sorry."

Max relayed the message, quietly so he wouldn't wake Addison.

"I can't go, Max," Bryce told him, sadly. "I have to stay here to protect Mink and the others. If I leave, he'll hurt them instead. Tell Edison I forgive him for not warning me. But tell him I can't let other people get hurt."

"They won't get hurt, Bryce," Max told him. "I promise."

Max disappeared from the screen as Addison woke.

"Stop talking." he said, coldly. "If you want to use your mouth, I suggest you use it on me."

Bryce's stomach turned over as he recalled what the vile man had taught him over the past hour. But he did not refuse or hesitate. He gagged as he performed the hateful act, hating this man more and more with each passing moment of it. He wanted to bite, but knew better. He'd been warned that pain given would mean pain received.

Even if Edison was on his way, he'd never get there in time to stop punishment if Addison decided to dole it out.

Theora woke and glared at Edison as he appeared on her vu-phone screen.

"You're going to hate me," he warned.

Ten minutes later, Theora was storming into the control room and switching her monitor over from standby, bringing up the warehouse where Bryce was currently located. She pulled up an inside look, via Max, and clenched her fists enough for her palms to bleed as she watched Addison withdraw from Bryce's mouth and climb back on top of him.

Theora wanted to return to an exterior shot of the building, but her heart wouldn't let her. The protectiveness she'd always felt for her little brother Shawn when they were younger was now making itself known again, even more than ever. Turning away now, she felt, would be as bad as abandoning Bryce. She swallowed her tears, knowing that Bryce needed her to focus on leading Edison to where he was.


	4. Chapter 4

Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into the Future

-A Skeleton in Edison's Closet-

Part 4

"Hurry!" Theora said, urgently, as Edison ran through the Fringes in the direction of the alley.

"Need a ride?" a friendly voice asked from nearby.

"Sure, Rik," Edison agreed. "I'm looking for a largish warehouse, mostly intact. Still has power."

"I know the one you mean," Rik said. "Don't like that area very much. Nobody goes there except the really rotten people. Who's there?"

"My brother," Edison said.

"Ah. Family reunion?"

Edison glared and his knuckles went white.

"Oh," Rik said, noticing. "I take it you're not too happy with him."

"I'm only admitting his existence now because my keeping it a secret ended up causing someone else to get hurt."

"I take it this is someone you really care about a lot?"

"Bryce."

"This guy you don't want to admit is your brother, is he a ... you know... one of those perverts in a bad way kind of people?"

"Unfortunately yes." Edison said. "He's got Bryce with him."

"How'd he manage that?" Rik asked.

"I didn't tell anyone about Addison, and..."

"And he just happens to be your twin, so Bryce thought he was you."

"Right," Edison said. "And Addison tricked Bryce into sex. So when I told everyone that I was marrying Vanna, Bryce thought I had used and dumped him."

"So he ran away and ended up right in the arms of the person who really hurt him," Rik realized as he stopped the rickshaw in front of the warehouse. He grabbed the blanket from the back and handed it to Edison.

"You stay out here," Edison said.

"Not this time," Rik said. "I'll deal with your brother, your job is to get Bryce out of there."

Edison started to protest but Rik cut him off.

"I know you believe that as your brother this guy is your responsibility. But Bryce is more important to you and you know it. Now, take this blanket and get Bryce out of here. Take the rickshaw and get him to the medical center. Then get the metrocops and make sure Bryce tells them everything."

"He might not want to talk," Edison said.

"He has to," was all Rik said in reply.

Addison was pulling his pants up as the door flew open.

"Brother!" he called out, cheerily, to Edison.

The scene in front of Edison was like one right out of his worst nightmares. Addison was smiling as if nothing was wrong, while on the bloodstained mattress not a foot away, Bryce was curled up, naked and whimpering softly.

Theora's voice, trembling with rage, came over the link on the vidicam Edison was holding but not broadcasting with.

"I'm calling for an ambulance," she told him. "And the metrocops."

"No metrocops," Edison said. "They'll just let him back out in a few years. Give the bastard to Breughal and Mahler."

"Edison," Rik said. "You know how I said you shouldn't go after your brother and beat the hell out of him?"

"Yeah?" Edison recalled.

"I've changed my mind." Rik said. "Give me the blanket. Right now the last thing Bryce is going to want to see if your face up close. You deal with the pervert, I'll get Bryce ready for the ambulance."

Rik hurried over to Bryce and covered him with the blanket. "Help is coming," he reassured the young genius. "Hold on."

"You have to leave me here," Bryce whispered hoarsely. "You have to. He'll hurt someone else if you don't."

"We'll make sure he doesn't," Rik promised. "You don't have to sacrifice yourself any longer."

"The law failed once," Bryce warned. "It will fail again. Go. Leave me here. He promised he'd only rape me from now on. The rapes hurt. But it would hurt worse if I let someone else suffer when they didn't have to."

Edison, in the meantime, had made certain that nobody would ever think Addison was him again. He'd broken Addison's nose with his vidicam, smiling with vicious satisfaction as he watched the blood trickle down the vile man's face.

"That's for Bryce," Edison said. "I should've broken your nose years ago. Then none of this would've happened.

Rik was still crouching next to Bryce, who had gone very silent.

"You'd better tell that ambulance to hurry," he said to Edison. "I think he's dying."

In the warehouse and the Network 23 Control Room, Edison and Theora each prayed silently for its arrival.


	5. Chapter 5

Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into the Future

-A Skeleton in Edison's Closet-

Part 5

Theora was sitting in a chair next to the hospital bed when Bryce woke at about three in the morning. She had adamantly refused to leave his side.

"It'll be awfully traumatic for him to wake up alone after all that's happened to him," she had pointed out.

"A nurse will..." one of the policewomen present at the scene had said as they packed up the evidence samples they had taken from Bryce.

"He needs a friend, not a stranger," had been Theora's last words on the subject.

"Theora?" Bryce said. "I guess I owe Edison an apology."

"No, you don't," Theora said. "He owes one to you."

"I can't go back to Network 23, you know," Bryce told her. "Not when Edison looks like..."

"You've got nowhere else to go,"

"Yes, I do," Bryce, looking out the window toward the Fringes."

"No," Theora shook her head. "You'd never survive out there. That place would see you dead within a day."

'I have already been violated,' Bryce thought to himself. 'And at the very threshold of death's door. So nothing worse can happen to me.'

Out loud him simply said. "Maybe you're right."

"Go back to sleep," Theora told him. "You've had a really rough day."

Bryce closed his eyes and pretended to fall back to sleep while in his mind he was planning a few changes.

"What do you mean he's gone?" Cheviot demanded when he'd gone to see Bryce the next afternoon.

"He checked himself out after Miss Jones went home," the doctor Cheviot was speaking to explained.

"You let a young man who was just raped leave this hospital on his own? Knowing that he has the street smarts of a child, even if he is a bloody genius." Cheviot snapped. "If he gets killed, I'm holding you personally responsible."

He stormed out and across the parking lot, getting into his car and slamming the door.

Gathering what little courage he had, Bryce knocked on the door of the grey van.

Breughal looked out the window and nudged the current Mahler.

"I think we got a suicide," Mahler chuckled. "Shall I..."

"No," Breughal shook his head.. "I don't think so. Something tells me we've got something interesting here. Let him in."

Mahler opened the back doors of the van and let Bryce inside.

"Awfully young to be out here by yourself, little one," Mahler said, threateningly. "Almost anything could happen."

"Been there, done that," Bryce said, simply. "I'm not going back to Network 23. I can't bear to look at Edison anymore. Not when he looks like that."

"So, you met Addison," Breughal said. "He used to entertain us. Until his recent demise."

"I'm glad he's gone," Bryce said. "But I know he's not the only one out there who's dangerous. That's why I need your help."

"You need us as bodyguards?" Breughal asked.

Bryce shook his head. "I don't want you to give me a fish," he said, recalling an old saying his grandmother had taught him when he was younger. "I want you to teach me to fish."

Breughal sized Bryce up in his mind, then smiled. "I think I might be able to do that. Now, the first thing we need to do is make you look the part. No matter how vicious you are, nobody on the street is going to take you seriously if you look like someone who works at a desk all day."

"Well, I can get a pair of jeans and..." Bryce began.

Breughal and Mahler shook their heads.

"That just makes you look like you're so poor you can't wait to die." Mahler explained.

"Don't worry, I know the perfect style for you," Breughal assured Bryce.

"He's got to be out there somewhere," Edison said, looking out the window of the Network 23 control room a few days later. "He can't be dead. I refuse to believe that."

"Reg and Dom have both looked, Edison," Theora said. "And they're still looking."

"What about your brother," Edison asked. "Maybe he..."

"I've been in touch with Shawn and Winnie. Neither of them have seen Bryce. I gave them his picture and Shawn's put it up at the restaurant. No word there either."

"People just don't vanish into thin air," Edison complained. "Not when I'm looking for them at any rate."

"If he's out there and he's still in one piece, we'll find him," Theora promised.

Murray joined them a moment later. "I just got out the phone with Cheviot. No go on the request for a hiatus. He wants you out in the field live and direct tonight."

"We don't even have a topic for tonight's show," Theora pointed out.

"He wants to Edison to cover the opening of the new Style Skate arena," Murray said. "Looks like some people decided to take the violence out of raking and just do a little trick-boarding. Apparently it's catching on in some parts."

"The human race will always have an inborn need to show off," Theora declared as she turned to set up for the night's broadcast.

A slim trick-boarder brushed past Edison and into the arena just short of an hour later. His hair was pale and spiked, except for a long white ponytail tipped with blood red. He was dressed in leathers and rags, his leather pants skin tight and handsomely complemented by the torn-styled t-shirt. Coiled around one leg, like a pet dragon, was a sleek black leather whip. A closer look revealed it was a cat-o-nine-tails. The boy didn't look like he belonged to the Fringes, but rather like the Fringes belonged to him.

Something about the youth tugged at Edison's mind, but the reporter was too busy checking his camera for broadcasting quality to pay too much attention.

Looking briefly back at Edison, Bryce found that the training he'd had with Breughal and Mahler over the past few days had buried the fear he once might have felt. For a brief moment, he considered revealing himself to his old friend. But it was too late to go back now. He'd gone through too much of a transformation over the past few days. Network 23's Research and Development lab was a place that no longer felt like home.

Eyes as red as a demon's narrowed as he turned back around and made his way inside.


End file.
